Many Americans spend countless hours maintaining and beautifying their lawns and landscape. As a matter of pride and personal expression, these people manicure their grass, plant and maintain flowers, shrubs, bushes, and trees all for the sake of enhancing the aesthetic qualities of their property. On properties with large areas of grass to cut, zero-radius turning riding mowers are very popular. These mowers utilize two (2) operating levers which are pushed forwards and backwards to control the movement of the mower. This steering control allows for much faster cutting times, particularly when there are many obstacles on the lawn, such as trees and shrubs. Due to the reduced cutting times and increased productivity, these zero-radius turning mowers are the preferred machine for those in the commercial lawn care industry. These types of mowers allow their users to cut relatively large areas of grass in a minimal amount of time while allowing the rider to sit in comfort.
While these mower are typically supplied with armrests mounted next to the seat, the operating levers require almost continual adjustment and the user is either forced to hold their arms up off of the armrest resulting in discomfort in arm, shoulder, and back muscles, or they must slide their arms continuously back and forth over the armrest resulting in skin irritation.